Agreement for silver casting services

Does anyone have tips or to share regarding protecting
original designs before submitting to a company that provides metal
casting services??

Are there forms or legal documents that I should be armed with
before submitting my designs to a caster?? I want my designs to be
produced solely for my use and no other. I have heard some
disturbing stories regarding fabrication companies that charged
outrageous prices to mass produce items only to turn around and take
the designers idea and sell it for their own profit.

Does anyone have experience, tips or ideas regarding this?

Thank you,
Nic

If you make your own mold you can mark it with a copyright symbol and
your name an date. I also stamp a copyright mark right in the model.
Most casters know better than to sell your designs to another
customer, but I have always thought that a signed agreement would be
a good idea. Since I do my own castings now, it isn’t much of an
issue for me personally, but I am very interested in what other
designers have done to protect themselves in this situation.

Stephen Walker

Does anyone have tips or to share regarding protecting
original designs before submitting to a company that provides metal
casting services?? 

Use a reputable caster who doesn’t steal designs.

Elaine
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com
Hard to Find Tools for Metal Clay

I have heard some disturbing stories regarding fabrication
companies that charged outrageous prices to mass produce items only
to turn around and take the designers idea and sell it for their own
profit. 

Well, I am sure that this has happened somewhere, sometime, but I
think it is in the same frequency as diamond-switching by retail
jewelers, which is to say, very rarely. Since this kind of behavior
can ruin a reputation, only someone who intends to be fly-by-night
can reasonably plan to do it.

Go to a caster who has been recommended on Orchid or by someone else
you know, and by all means ask them about this issue. If they freak
out and get angry, dump them. If they kindly and calmly explain why
you can have confidence in their integrity, use them. A lot of the
jewelry industry runs on trust. Diamond dealers send stones to
stores on memo. Clients drop off diamonds in a store to be reset.
Makers send designs to galleries on consignment. The list goes on and
on. Verify when possible, but learn to trust, and learn to discern
who to trust.

M’lou Brubaker
Minnesota, USA
http://www.craftswomen.com/M’louBrubaker

We provide casting services to artists and jewelers. We recommend
that you have your original designs copyrighted and stamped with
your logo trade mark before submitting your designs to be
reproduced.

Keep original model because reproduced copy is always smaller do to
shrinkage + finishing. Unfortunately your designs once sold to
general public could be claimed by any body as their own. That is
why you need to get it copyrighted first and keep the original. It is
your design and it should be produced solely for your use and no
other.

Any business person with integrity as we at jcco enterprises would
produce your designs only for you. We at jcco enterprises chose
integrity over greed. For more and to see our prices
for services that we can provide for you please visit our website
www.jccojewelrycastingservices.com . Our work is high quality and
our prices are low.

When you have your designs copyrighted and you are ready please
consider giving us a try.

Thank you
Adam at jcco enterprises ( 716 ) - 626 - 0892

Does anyone have experience, tips or ideas regarding this? 

It’s simple-- choose a reliable caster, such as Daniel Grandi of
Racecar Jewelry or any of the other casters recommended by Orchid
members (check archives). Do NOT send your designs to Asia, where
there tends to be a very different attitude toward “intellectual
property”. You’ll be fine.

Noel

When in doubt…have your designs copyrighted but I agree with Noel
100%. I feel super comfortable with my jeweler/caster handling my
pieces.

Well, I am sure that this has happened somewhere, sometime, but I
think it is in the same frequency as diamond-switching by retail
jewelers, which is to say, very rarely. Since this kind of
behavior can ruin a reputation, only someone who intends to be
fly-by-night can reasonably plan to do it. 

A bit of a reality check here, as M’Lou, Noel and others have
pointed out. We are more of a full-service shop. The only typical
job we don’t do is platinum casting - I even had a Pt centrifuge and
sold it because I didn’t want to get into it. Most of the casting
shops people are talking about, and I also know a few, are
metal-pouring shops with maybe finishing and some assembly, too.
Like everything, there’s all kinds. So, someone brings me a mold and
wants it cast.

  1. While it COULD be that it’s the grandest, finest design the world
    has ever known, that’s never happened to me, personally.

  2. Most supply waxes or keep their molds except in the bigger shops.
    If we were to mold the cast, it would have double shrinkage and all
    sorts of issues that make it unsuitable anyway. 1/2 of the contract
    casting is molded from from unsuitable models to begin with, too.

  3. Even if we did all that we’d have to market and sell somebody
    else’s designs, and that’s not what we do - we’re manufacturers.

  4. Then we’d also have to play hide-and-seek with everybody who came
    in the place, and think about which client’s jewelry we were
    knocking off and stash it away.

  5. Even it we did all THAT, a lawsuit would cost us $50,000 which
    would be partially defrayed by the $250 we made on the designs, and
    finally

  6. We have integrity, and a reputation in all things jewelry, and we
    just don’t act like that. I DO know someone with a reputation for
    molding people’s work, but his quality in anything is just above
    garbage to begin with, too. But he’s the only person I know of or
    have ever heard of in my life - and we all know and just behave
    accordingly, in his case. All of this is not to say that everyone
    shouldn’t take prudent precautions to protect themselves. By and
    large in my experience casting shops really don’t even pay much
    attention to what’s being cast, it’s just “fill the flask, fill the
    flask.” There may be some disagreement here, but if you walk into my
    shop with a paper that says, “You won’t pinch my designs”, I’ll be
    happy to sign it. If you walk in with your lawyer and a 4 page
    contract in the first place and the fourth place and have beady eyes
    and a shrill, paranoid voice, I will decline your business.l Life’s
    too short and my references are impeccable. Integrity is a two way
    street.

John and Jo-Ann have an impeccable reputation. I’ve known both more
than 20 years.

That said, it seems to me that people who approach with a paranoid
attitude are likely to get “ripped off”. Unless you’ve discovered the
universal jewelry piece what makes you thing someone would knock off
your design?

KPK

Since the early '80s I’ve been using Larry Paul in Philadelphia for
all my casting, and I’ve been very happy with them.

A number of years ago, another of their customers asked them for a
recommendation for someone who was making a specific design, and
they recommended me. I sold several pieces to this person, and he
subsequently brought one of my rings to Larry to have a mold made so
he could produce them himself. Recognizing my design, Larry refused
to do so. I would recommend him to anybody.

Janet Kofoed
http://users.rcn.com/kkofoed